[Music] Music Streaming Services...Which one do you use?

[Juan Albion]

Spotify Premium. But last year I also took a 1-year subscription to Tidal Hi-Fi and absolutely loved the albums they'd taken directly from the master tapes. In the end, though, I decided I only needed one and Audials went through a period of not being able to rip Tidal in lossless so I went with Spotify.

 

[1066familyman]

Spotify Premium. But last year I also took a 1-year subscription to Tidal Hi-Fi and absolutely loved the albums they'd taken directly from the master tapes. In the end, though, I decided I only needed one and Audials went through a period of not being able to rip Tidal in lossless so I went with Spotify.

I'd never heard of Audials, so just had a read up. Sounds quite interesting.

 

[Official Old Man]

In the office I have Spotify free but also my turntable and vinyl now.
On Alexa I've Amazon Prime music plus my Daughters Spotify account. I have a Soundcore boost bluetooth speaker I take outside that pumps the music nicely. Do listen to Caroline a lot so I'll add Tune-In to the list. I've three speakers and 'play everywhere' fills the house.
Don't understand this Amazon HD when I'm only putting it through Alexa.

 

[Titanic]

Another vote for Spotify Premium with assorted Sonos/Alexa products around the house.

 

[Normal Rob]

Spotify Premium/Family. Have 4 users currently on it, all with separate accounts,. Will soon be 5 if my youngest daughter want to come on board at a similar age to my other 2. All linked in to my google home set-up. Great value for the price.

 

[1066familyman]

In the office I have Spotify free but also my turntable and vinyl now.
On Alexa I've Amazon Prime music plus my Daughters Spotify account. I have a Soundcore boost bluetooth speaker I take outside that pumps the music nicely. Do listen to Caroline a lot so I'll add Tune-In to the list. I've three speakers and 'play everywhere' fills the house.
Don't understand this Amazon HD when I'm only putting it through Alexa.

There is no point to Amazon HD over something like that bugging device, as you say. In fact, can't really see much point going beyond 320 mp3 on any bluetooth or wireless speaker set up. Another reason why Spotify has proved so popular I expect. I know blue tooth standards have come on at quite a pace in recent times, but still not likely to match wired set ups. Same with headphones really when it comes to wired vs wireless.

 

[herecomesaregular]

Tidal Hifi is flac on some albums, so better quality than mp3.

 

[1066familyman]

Tidal Hifi is flac on some albums, so better quality than mp3.

On all their albums on the HiFi subscription I assume. Starting at cd quality 16 bit / 44.1khz , going right the way up to MQA. If you've got the gear to fully unfold the MQA's then that's the best quality files you can get, in theory, and only Tidal offer that. Qobuz goes right up to 24bit / 192khz though, which is marketed as 'hi res'. Deezer's flac files begin and end at 16bit / 44.1khz (cd quality), which is where I'm at, at my age

Spotify and Youtube doesn't go beyond mp3.

 

[Is it PotG?]

I have about 1/3 of my albums stored in 24/96 and 2/3 16/44.

Was a little wary until the software was sorted that didn't automatically downconvert the higher res to lower.

I'm hoping to get more of the 'better quality' albums in the higher res for future use, can always convert them to standard flac for phone use but you can't ski uphill.

 

[1066familyman]

I have about 1/3 of my albums stored in 24/96 and 2/3 16/44.

Was a little wary until the software was sorted that didn't automatically downconvert the higher res to lower.

I'm hoping to get more of the 'better quality' albums in the higher res for future use, can always convert them to standard flac for phone use but you can't ski uphill.

Yep, good point about taking the higher quality so you can usually down sample, whereas once ripped in the 16 bit you can't upscale it to 24 bit. However, my Cowon DAP, for example, only supports up to 16 bit files, so I'd be screwed if I ripped everything in 24 bit. Also, the 24 bit's I have heard elsewhere, I could barely hear the difference to be honest.

Do you notice much difference in quality of 24 bit over 16 bit? Or say 24/192 over 24/96? I've read that with MQA'a on the right gear, there really is a nice quality difference. But I'm not sure I completely buy into this 'hi res' marketing of 24 bit over 16 bit.

 

[Ludensian Gull]

Is this thread now going over anybody else's head Or is it just me that doesn't understand the last half dozen posts

 

[1066familyman]

Is this thread now going over anybody else's head Or is it just me that doesn't understand the last half dozen posts

Sorry, wandered off a bit on file quailty etc. But then for some sound quailty is a deciding factor in what streaming service they choose to go with.

 

[Nitram]

On all their albums on the HiFi subscription I assume. Starting at cd quality 16 bit / 44.1khz , going right the way up to MQA. If you've got the gear to fully unfold the MQA's then that's the best quality files you can get, in theory, and only Tidal offer that. Qobuz goes right up to 24bit / 192khz though, which is marketed as 'hi res'. Deezer's flac files begin and end at 16bit / 44.1khz (cd quality), which is where I'm at, at my age

Spotify and Youtube doesn't go beyond mp3.

Don’t really understand all this myself. Just checked on my Spotify and it gives you four options for music quality. Low (24k/bits) to Very High (320k/bits). So where does this fit in with the quality ratings?

 

[1066familyman]

Don’t really understand all this myself. Just checked on my Spotify and it gives you four options for music quality. Low (24k/bits) to Very High (320k/bits). So where does this fit in with the quality ratings?

320kbps is the highest quality mp3 goes up to. I thought it went as low as 40 something, which is pretty terrible, but if they say 24kbps, then that's your lowest.

Mp3 compresses sound to reduce the file size. This is called lossy.

Uncompressed files are better in sound quailty and bigger in size. They are called lossless.

 

[Nitram]

320kbps is the highest quality mp3 goes up to. I thought it went as low as 40 something, which is pretty terrible, but if they say 24kbps, then that's your lowest.

Mp3 compresses sound to reduce the file size. This is called lossy.

Uncompressed files are better in sound quailty and bigger in size. They are called lossless.

Thanks for explaining this. I should try Tidal on my system. Although I did hear Tidal through a friends system, which he paid loads for, and to my ears (older) I didn’t think the sound was any better, than Spotify on mine. In fact I thought it was disappointing.

I still prefer to play vinyl through my main setup but occasionally stream Spotify, I’ll have to do a vinyl/stream comparison of a record I know well and hear the difference.

 

[stingray]

Don’t really understand all this myself. Just checked on my Spotify and it gives you four options for music quality. Low (24k/bits) to Very High (320k/bits). So where does this fit in with the quality ratings?

basic quality

 

[Goldstone1976]

Yep, good point about taking the higher quality so you can usually down sample, whereas once ripped in the 16 bit you can't upscale it to 24 bit. However, my Cowon DAP, for example, only supports up to 16 bit files, so I'd be screwed if I ripped everything in 24 bit. Also, the 24 bit's I have heard elsewhere, I could barely hear the difference to be honest.

Do you notice much difference in quality of 24 bit over 16 bit? Or say 24/192 over 24/96? I've read that with MQA'a on the right gear, there really is a nice quality difference. But I'm not sure I completely buy into this 'hi res' marketing of 24 bit over 16 bit.

I’ve said elsewhere (maybe even this thread??) that I can’t tell any difference between 24 and 16 bit, but I sure as hell can tell the difference between MQA and either 24 or 16. Just so much more detail - which some won’t like, but I do.

 

[1066familyman]

Good news! Deezer have now permanently dropped their hifi tier subscription from £19.99 to £14.99 per month

To be clear, their hifi tier means 16 bit / 44.1khz flac files. Cd quality in other words. Not 24 bit and above, which is otherwise labelled as 'hi res' by streaming services such as Tidal and Qobuz.

 

[Nitram]

Good news! Deezer have now permanently dropped their hifi tier subscription from £19.99 to £14.99 per month

To be clear, their hifi tier means 16 bit / 44.1khz flac files. Cd quality in other words. Not 24 bit and above, which is otherwise labelled as 'hi res' by streaming services such as Tidal and Qobuz.

Am I right in understanding you would have do to this by a desktop rather than a mobile/iPad to get the high tier?

 

[1066familyman]

Am I right in understanding you would have do to this by a desktop rather than a mobile/iPad to get the high tier?

No, same flac files available via mobile on Deezer now too.